….
"Damn it... I probably shouldn't have said that to a mother who's scared out of her mind. But I can't take it back now. It was the truth, whether she wanted to hear it or not."
He stood straight, his chest heaving, his gaze shifting from Inko to the trembling nerd beside her.
"I am who I am because of the people around me." Katsuki admitted, the words tasting like ash on his tongue even as he spoke them with conviction. "Because of the people who supported me, held me back when I went too far, and knocked some sense into me when I needed it most."
"But Deku isn't like that. He is what he is from day one. He was that way yesterday, he's that way today, and he'll be that way for however long he has left to draw breath."
He stepped closer, practically looming over Inko, his chin trembling despite his ferocious glare.
"Auntie Inko, you're asking the wrong damn question. You're worried about who's supposed to protect this nerd, but that isn't why he's doing this. You think he's putting himself through hell just to make you suffer? Then ask yourself something else. Who do you think he was fighting for at Kamino?!"
"He came for me!
"I was the weak piece of shit that got snatched out by villains! A liability that let those freaks turn the camp inside out! And this useless nerd, who couldn't even throw a proper punch without Dabi-sensei kicking his teeth every afternoon, dragged his ass across an entire damn city just to make sure I didn't end up dead in a ditch!"
"Katsuki, that's enough–"
Toshinori tried to speak from the floor, but Bakugo didn't even glance down.
"It's not enough, All Might! Stop groveling on the floor like you're the one who failed!" Katsuki shouted, his voice ringing with intensity–
"He didn't do what he did to chase after you or show off for the cameras. He went because sitting there while someone else was dying wasn't something he could live with! You can take him out of U.A. tomorrow, Auntie, pull his papers, lock him in his room, take away his notebooks, do whatever you want, but what the hell are you going to do when somebody screams for help down the street?
"Are you going to lock him away every time someone needs him? Because you already know he won't just stand there and do nothing!"
Katsuki jabbed a blunt, shaking finger into the air.
"A piece of paper from the school board is gonna stop this freak from jumping in front of a truck? Locking the front door changes who he is? If you pull him out now, he's just gonna do it anyway.
"Only next time, he won't have Dabi-sensei standing behind him to torch the bastards, and he won't have us covering his blind spots! He'll just be a target!"
Izuku choked on a breath, tears spilling freely over his freckled cheeks as he stared at the boy who had spent ten years treating him like an insect.
"Kacchan..." Izuku whispered, his voice trembling. "I..."
"I am not doing this for you, Deku, so don't get the wrong idea!" Katsuki snarled, turning his burning, tear-filled eyes toward Inko. "I am doing this for me. Because when I look back at everything I have done, I want to be able to live with the person staring back at me."
Inko stood completely frozen.
The weight of Katsuki's confession crashed through her maternal panic, shattering the terrified fog that had paralyzed her for three days.
She looked at Katsuki's bruised, tear-streaked, furious face, the boy who had always held his head impossibly high now standing stripped of every trace of pride, then turned her gaze toward Toshinori, the fallen pillar bowing his head in repentance, before finally looking down at her son.
"Mom." Izuku said softly, stepping in front of Katsuki and dropping down onto both knees right beside Toshinori.
He reached out, taking his mother's hands and pressing his forehead against them with profound reverence.
"I won't tell you not to worry, Mom." He whispered. "I understand how much pain I have caused you, and every time you turn on the news, you're probably wondering whether I am safe."
"But Dabi-sensei taught me that standing in the dark doesn't mean I have to burn myself down, and if I walk away now, Mom, I am not really living, so please... I want to finish what I started. Don't take my dream away from me."
"I am NOT done yet!" Bakugo almost shouted.
He took another aggressive step forward between Inko and Izuku.
"...I will stop him." He declared. "If it's enough to reassure you... I will. No… We will. Me... and those ext… those damn classmates of ours. We will help him."
For the first time in his life, Katsuki wasn't looking down on the people beside him as stepping stones or background noise.
"Sure, we're the same idiots who followed him straight into a warzone, but we did it because every damn one of us believed he'd make it out alive." Bakugo barked, roughly wiping the tears from his cheek with the back of his hand. "And why the hell wouldn't we? That bastard of a teacher was right there with us!"
He glared out the window, where the memory of azure flames tearing the heavens apart was still burned into the back of his eyelids.
"So whenever Deku tries to do something he can't handle... whenever this self sacrificing idiot tries to throw his life... I will personally beat him into the dirt and stop him myself."
Katsuki looked back down at Inko, his fists clenched tight at his sides.
"I won't let him die, Auntie. I swear on my own damn life. So stop trying to kill who he is before he even gets the chance to stand."
The room fell quiet, and behind them, Mitsuki slowly lowered her head, leaning her forehead against Masaru's shoulder.
Even Toshinori, still kneeling, could only stare at the spiky-haired blond boy with an ache of profound awe in his chest.
Inko stood completely motionless; a fresh sob hitched in her throat, but the suffocating panic had broken.
Slowly, she slid down to her knees, gathering Izuku into her arms and burying her face, weeping openly into his shoulder as she finally let go.
"I am sorry, Izuku... I am so sorry..." she wept. "Every day... Every single day I just want you to come home safe. That's all I have ever wanted."
Izuku wrapped his arms around his mother, tears soaking into her shoulder as he squeezed his eyes shut. "I promise... I promise I won't leave you behind. I will come back home."
On the floor beside them, Toshinori let out an exhale.
The unbearable weight pressing down on his chest didn't vanish, but for the first time since the battle, the guilt gave way to something resembling hope.
Slowly, Toshinori gently raised a bandaged hand, waving off Izuku who tried to help. He stood on his own trembling legs, his sunken blue eyes moving from Inko's bowed figure toward Katsuki.
"Young Bakugo." Toshinori called out.
"Shut it, All Might," Katsuki grunted. "I said my piece. I am not doing an encore."
"No... you spoke the truth that I was too weak to voice." Toshinori murmured, bowing his head toward the blond boy. "For a long time, I carried this nation believing that a hero must stand alone at the pinnacle. That one broad back was all society needed to stay afloat.
"But yesterday's battle proved that a solitary pillar can only create a fragile peace, and Young Midoriya cannot carry it alone, neither can you, so the two of you... all of you... must become the foundation together."
From the doorway, Mitsuki let out a shaky laugh, wiping her mascara.
She stepped into the room, coming up behind Katsuki, and instead of delivering her usual skull-cracking downward fist, she simply reached out and roughly tousled his spiky blond hair.
She sniffed, her voice thick with pride. "You actually sounded like a human being for once."
"Don't touch me!" Katsuki swatted her arm, though there was zero heat behind the motion.
Masaru followed behind, bowing deeply toward Inko and Toshinori with a relieved smile. "Midoriya-san... Toshinori-san. We apologize for the intrusion. But... we are so grateful. For both of our boys."
Inko slowly pulled back from Izuku.
She wiped her eyes with a handkerchief, looking at Katsuki with an expression that held both profound sorrow for the past and a fragile, blooming gratitude for the present.
"You're right, Katsuki-kun." Inko said. "Even if I locked the door... Izuku wouldn't be living."
She turned back to her son, reaching up with both hands to cup his cheeks.
"You can stay at U.A., Izuku."
Izuku's breath caught a wide, broken sob breaking through his smile as he nodded furiously. "Yes! Yes, Mom! I promise! I promise on everything!"
.
….
[To be continued…]
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